In 1936, Sinclair Lewis adapted his novel into a play under the auspices of the Federal Theatre Project, and theatres across the country opened productions on the same night.

On the 80th anniversary of the first theatrical adaptation of Lewis’s novel, and in cooperation with the Sinclair Lewis Estate, Berkeley Rep is organizing a nationwide reading of the new adaptation on Monday, October 24. Theatres, universities, and libraries across the United States have been invited to organize free public readings of the new adaptation by Tony Taccone and Bennett S. Cohen.

This nationwide reading is made possible thanks to the generous support of Barbara and Rodgin Cohen and Orin Kramer, with the cooperation of the Sinclair Lewis Estate.

CHP is pleased to participate in this timely event. Admission is FREE!

Connecticut Heritage Productions (CHP) is proud to present Dylan Thomas’ holiday classic A Child’s Christmas in Wales. Peter Loffredo brings to life these sometimes amusing, sometimes touching memories of childhood in the early 1900s. This series of warm childhood remembrances not only reflects the Victorian era in Wales, but speaks to the magic of holidays, to the eternal joys of family and friends, and to the human condition in all times. Dylan’s masterful poetic prose as well as his gorgeous use of the English language makes this a holiday show for the whole family.

The performance is suitable for all adults and for children old enough to sit through a live performance.

ALIVE RADIO, under “the baobab tree” in Ninth Square downtown New Haven presents PARADISE LODGE : a terrifying comedy, spun off from the entrails of “Psycho” and “The Shining” : an everyday woman takes a leap of fate up an imaginary cliff to write the novel of her dreams. With her everyday husband and mentally-challenging teenage daughter in tow, she tows them off to a desolate mountain hideaway, her altering ego femme fatale by her side. A lunatic proprietor and his shape-shifting spawn turn her idyllic retreat into a nightmare of cosmic proportions!

Janet Leigh meets Jack Nicholson.

Norman Bates meets Shelley Duval.

Alfred Hitchcock meets Carrie’s underwear.

Freddy Kruger meets Stanley Kubrick.

Perry Como’s off­spring goes digital and the rivers of blood flood down from Uranus!

And it all takes place in PARADISE LODGE : a Halloween offering from ALIVE RADIO, under the baobab tree, Friday the Thirtieth of October at 8;00pm : 71 Orange Street, in beautiful Ninth Square downtown New Haven

Suggested donation $10 All proceeds to benefit ongoing productions of ALIVE­ RADIO : this radio is ALIVE : for information call 475.227.3581 : I’ll repeat that 475.227.3581 : and be aware nobody will be allowed to leave if they haven’t already arrived!!!

*** PARADISE LODGE is the premier project of ALIVE RADIO : a collaboration of baobab tree studios (in downtown Ninth Square New Haven) , Connecticut Heritage Theatre (artistic director, Teresa Langston) and local writer Steve Bellwood, to produce an on-going series of podcasts, You-Tube videos and “alive” (audience-invited) entertainments and documentations of the process. It will be followed up in November by a comedic spin on another classic movie : CASABLANQA, as part of a cinematic “take-out” series. Similar approach will later be taken to the works of Shakespeare and other canonized playwrights, including in March a “festival” spin on the Irish literary heritage. Our underlying aim is to gather a company of actors and an invested following to produce an original drama series set in New Haven, involving multiple characters and scenarios.

On Monday night, November 9, at 7:00PM, Connecticut Heritage Productions, will join theaters, libraries, and colleges nationwide in the simultaneous staged readings of The Other Woman, a full-length, one-act play adapted from five essays appearing in the bestselling anthology The Other Woman: Twenty-one Wives, Lovers, and Others Talk Openly About Sex, Deception, Love, and Betrayal. Co-producers Cynthia Comsky and Victoria Zackheim (anthology editor and playwright) have engaged the participation of artistic directors across the country, including experimental as well as traditional theaters, schools and libraries reflecting the diversity of our population in the United States.

Connecticut Heritage Productions will be highlighted in a local/regional/national media campaign designed to draw attention to the range of venues for creativity around the country, and to forge a connection with our own community.

The Other Woman tells the stories of five women with very different viewpoints and experiences around infidelity. Authors whose work appears in the play are Caroline Leavitt, Aviva Layton, Mary Jo Eustace, Connie May Fowler, and Maxinne Rhea Leighton. The play's first reading took place at the Players Club in Manhattan, with parts read by Kathleen Chalfant, Ellen McLaughlin, Penny Fuller, Winslow Corbett, and Connie May Fowler.

Connecticut Heritage Productions production will be directed by Teresa Langston with roles read by Susan Smith Thom, Melissa McLean, Barbara Gallow, Elizabeth Reynolds and Amy Bentley. The event will be held at the Green Street Center for the Arts in Middletown, CT.

Reader's Theater together with CHP (Connecticut Heritage Productions) present 'Copenhagen' by Michael Frayn. The play is based around an event that occurred in Copenhagen in 1941, a meeting between the physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.

And it all takes place under the Baobab Tree, Friday the Eleventh of December at 8:00pm: 71 Orange Street, in beautiful Ninth Square downtown New Haven

Suggested donation $10 All proceeds to benefit ongoing productions of ALIVE­ RADIO : this radio is ALIVE : for information call 475.227.3581 : I’ll repeat that 475.227.3581 : and be aware nobody will be allowed to leave if they haven’t already arrived!!!

*** CASABLANQA is the second in the series of ALIVE RADIO : a collaboration of Baobab Tree Studios (in downtown Ninth Square New Haven) , Connecticut Heritage Theater (artistic director, Teresa Langston) and local writer Steve Bellwood, to produce an on-going series of podcasts, You-Tube videos and “alive” (audience-invited) entertainments and documentations of the process. Similar approach will later be taken to other classic films, the works of Shakespeare and other canonized playwrights, including in March a “festival” spin on the Irish literary heritage. Our underlying aim is to gather a company of actors and an invested following to produce an original drama series set in New Haven, involving multiple characters and scenarios.

Our Vision

Theater is the active realm of reflection and imagination. It provides a means of communicating ideas, large and small, for the playwright. It provides a space to explore, play, grow for the artists participating in it. It provides a pathway to understanding our humanity for all of us and is a key to empathy, for through performance, we are granted the opportunity to live in another world, inhabited by strangers for time.

We strive to be a catalyst for new, diverse and inclusive theater that challenges assumptions, stretches our perceptions and nurtures the creative in all of us. Our passion is to tell stories about how we live now and to engage audiences in an exchange of ideas that makes us think harder, laugh longer, feel more deeply.